Anthony Joshua (19-0, 19 KOs) will be defending his IBF/WBA heavyweight straps on October 28 against his IBF mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev (25-1, 13 KOs) at the Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff, Wales.
Pulev is a 2008 Olympian from Bulgaria with good size at 6’4 ½”, 250 lbs. and an excellent jab, but not much else going for him. He’s not a power puncher by any means, and he’s slow on his feet. Pulev can take a decent punch, but he doesn’t great punch resistance, as we saw in his 5th knockout loss to Wladimir Klitschko in 2014. It seemed like every time Wladimir would touch Pulev with a shot, he’d go down. It was comical to watch.
Pulev will need to be able to take shots a little better than that for him to have a chance up pulling off an upset against Joshua on October 28. If Pulev hits the deck each time Joshua lands anything, it’s not going to be much of a fight. For all the British boxing fans that ordering the Joshua-Pulev fight on Sky Box Office, they might not be overjoyed a seeing Pulev flop around each time he gets hit with a glancing blow. That’s why it’s important for the sanctioning bodies like the IBF to make sure only the best contenders challenge for the titles as their mandatory challengers.
If Pulev had been properly tested by facing someone like Jarrell Miller or Alexander Povetkin, then the boxing fans would have a better chance of seeing Joshua in with a good opponent on October 28.
Rather than vacate the IBF title and fight an opponent that the British boxing fans want to see him fight in WBC heavyweight champion Deontay “Bronze Bomber” Wilder, Joshua has decided to take a much easier option in 36-year-old Pulev from Bulgaria. Pulev is mostly known as the fighter that former heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko destroyed in 5 rounds on November 15, 2014 in Hamburg, Germany.
Pulev, 6’4 ½”, has won his last 4 fights since then against mostly journeyman level opposition in chewing up 3 years of his career. Pulev did beat former heavyweight world title challenger Dereck Chisora by a 12 round split decision last year on May 7 in a fight for the vacant EBU heavyweight title. But since then, Pulev has gone back to facing journeyman level opposition, again, in beating Kevin Johnson and Samuel Peter in his last 2 fights.
Surprisingly, Joshua vs. Pulev will be televised on Sky Box Office pay-per-view in the UK. It’s pretty astounding because it’s an awful fight. Putting a mismatch like Joshua-Pulev on PPV is hard to understand. Yeah, Matchroom Sport, the promoters for Joshua, can put fights like this on PPV in the UK, but that doesn’t mean they necessarily should. If the idea is to increase Joshua’s popularity when facing weak opposition like Pulev, his fights should be televised on regular Sky.
The PPV model should be used more for when Joshua fights quality guys like Deontay and Luis Ortiz. That’s how you build a star. At this point in Joshua’s career all of his fights are winding up on PPV, even his mismatch against Eric Molina last December. That was a fight that was just begging to be put on regular Sky, as Molina ever stood a chance. He was a fighter that was knocked out by Deontay in 2015, and he’d only fought twice since then in beating journeyman Rodricka Ray and a past his best Tomasz Adamek.
Joshua, 27, wanted to get a second fight in against the 41-year-old Wladimir Klitschko for November 11, but the Ukrainian decided he wanted to retire instead, much to the disappointment of Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn. He concluded that Wladimir likely realized that Joshua would come more prepared to do a better job in the rematch, so it was a smart thing for him to retire. The reality is Wladimir is 41 now, and he doesn’t have the desire to be still fighting. When Joshua is 41, will he still want to take on the best in the heavyweight division? I doubt it. You can’t blame Wladimir for wanting to retire rather than fight Joshua a second time. I don’t expect Joshua to still be fighting when he’s 41, and if he is, I sure as heck don’t picture him being the top fighter in the heavyweight division. Boxing changes quickly, and the old timers get chewed up by the young lions.
What we did learn from watching the Joshua vs. Klitschko fight last April were a couple of things. First off, Joshua’s stamina is terrible. He gassed out after just 6 rounds and didn’t get his second wind until the 10th. That’s terrible. The second thing that was noticeable was Joshua’s lack of mobility. Wladimir had Joshua helpless when he was moving around the ring. Joshua was too slow on his feet to cut off the ring. The third thing that was clear was Joshua’s lack of ability to throw long power punches and jabs. When Wladimir was on the outside, he dominated the action. All the muscle that Joshua carries around made it impossible for him to throw long jabs and power shots. The only time Joshua could land anything was when Wladimir was at medium to close range distance from him. That’s bad news for Joshua because tall heavyweights like Deontay are capable of jabbing and throwing long right hands from the outside. If Joshua is incapable of throwing punches from the distance, then he’s going to have a lot of problems against Deontay.
Pulev hasn’t done much to deserve being the No.1 contender with the International Boxing Federation. You’d like to see heavyweights earn their No.1 rankings rather than backing their ray into the spot after being weak opposition the way Pulev has done. The IBF would have done better if they had Pulev work for the No.1 spot by fighting the likes of Jarrell Miller, Alexander Povetkin, Dillian Whyte or Carlos Takam. Beating Chisora to get the No.1 ranking with the IBF seems like an odd choice because Chisora has done nothing with his career in a long time other than lose to David Haye, Tyson Fury [twice] and Dillian Whyte. With all those defeats, Chisora shouldn’t have been the guy that Pulev fought to get the No.1 spot with the IBF. Jarrell Miller would have been far better, but I’m thinking logically though. Miller is undefeated. Chisora (26-7) has 7 losses in his career.
Luis Ortiz is Joshua’s WBA mandatory. It remains to be seen whether he’ll be Joshua’s next opponent after Pulev if he gets past him. Ortiz could be facing Wilder on November 4 in a fight for his WBC belt. If Ortiz loses to Wilder, then you’d have to expect him to be removed as Joshua’s mandatory.
The undercard for the Joshua-Pulev card is still taking shape. As of now, the card only has Joshua vs. Pulev. Hopefully there will be some quality fights on the card so that he boxing fans aren’t stuck with just the mismatch between Joshua and Pulev.
“Anthony is a formidable opponent. We will not hug and hold, we will not run; we will stand and fight. His style fits mine perfectly and in boxing, styles make fights,” said Pulev via skysports.com. “My preparation will be very intense, and I will be perfectly ready when I enter the ring so that he will have no chance to beat me.”
Well, if Pulev isn’t going to run from Joshua, then this fight is going to end early with him getting knocked out. The problem that Pulev has is he doesn’t have the mobility to try and elude Joshua even if he wants to. Pulev is one of those old fashioned heavyweights with zero mobility. He’s not like Deontay Wilder or Wladimir in terms of mobility. Pulev’s only chance of winning the fight against Joshua is to hit him with jabs from the outside to keep him from getting in punching range to land his big shots.
If Pulev can take a step back each time Joshua bum rushes him, he’ll have a chance of winning. Pulev will need to jab hard to stop Joshua in his tracks when he lowers his head and starts charging him. It’s not going to be easy though, because Joshua will be coming full steam ahead looking to land his power shots. Another way for Pulev to possibly win is to get Joshua into a little tear up like Wladimir did in round 6 of their fight on April 29 at Wembley Stadium in London, England. If Joshua empties out his gas tank trying to knock Pulev out, he might gas out in the process. Joshua gasses out like no one I’ve ever seen before. He fades and he doesn’t get his second wind for 3 rounds.
It was the same thing for Joshua in his fight against Dillian Whyte in 2015. Joshua gassed out in round 2, and didn’t recover until the 6th. Joshua has got to have some of the worst stamina that I’ve ever seen before in a heavyweight. The good news is Joshua appears to have been doing a lot of cardio on the track to improve his stamina and shed useless muscle weight. However, that still may not help him. He’s still built like a bodybuilder even with all the cardio work, and I suspect that he’ll gas quickly if he throws a lot of punches while trying to knockout Pulev. A tired out Joshua will be literally at the mercy of Pulev, who isn’t shy about going after his hurt and/or tired opponents. Wladimir could have easily knocked Joshua out if he had stepped on the gas after he faded in round 6, but he was too timid to finish him. Pulev won’t be afraid. He’ll look to take Joshua out in short order if he gets him exhausted the way Wladimir did.